The Edge Markets (13/12/2018) - NEW DELHI (Dec 13): India’s crude palm oil (CPO) imports dropped 6.8 per cent in November from the previous month as buyers waited for a duty reduction under a Malaysia-India trade deal.

“India imported 568,376 tonnes of CPO last month compared with 609,828 tonnes in October,” said the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), an industry group, today.

Refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein imports in November were 108,911 tonnes compared with 136,967 tonnes in October.

The SEA said in anticipation of a likely reduction of import duty by the Indian government on palm oil by end-December, shipments had slowed down but purchases were likely to pick up beginning January.

The industry group said under the Malaysia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, India had imposed the maximum import duty of 44 per cent on CPO and 54 per cent on refined palm oil (RPO) since June.

The duty will be revised to a maximum of 40 per cent on CPO and 45 per cent on RPO by the end of this month.

India’s total vegetable oil imports in November were recorded at 1.13 million tonnes, a growth of 9.7 per cent from the previous month.